Jeffrey Green. Historianhttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk
Jeffrey is based south of London - click on Jeffrey's name at left for home pageSat, 06 Jun 2020 13:11:50 +0000en
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngJeffrey Green. Historianhttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk
251: A Victorian middle-class family: the Audainshttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/06/251-a-victorian-middle-class-family-the-audains/
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/06/251-a-victorian-middle-class-family-the-audains/#respondSat, 06 Jun 2020 10:59:25 +0000http://jeffreygreen.co.uk/?p=5801Contributed by Kathy Chater whose article on Ida Audain will appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She will be publishing a full study of the family. Cyril has left descendants and she is grateful to one of them and to a local historian in the West Indies for their help.

John Audain (c. 1808-1864) was a merchant in St Vincent. He prospered and, after the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, bought the Richmond Hill estate, the largest on the island, which overlooked the island’s capital Kingstown. In 1846 he married his second wife, Hannah Bannatyne (1825-1883), the daughter of a black schoolteacher. Ten years later he became a member of the island’s governing body then in 1860 moved with his wife and three surviving children to London, where they lived in Notting Hill. Two sons were born here before his death in 1864.

His widow and five children had a lifestyle typical of their class. The two daughters, Estella and Ida, were taught music; the eldest son, Harley, who inherited the estate, became a civil servant; the next son, Cyril, tried a number of occupations without success and the youngest, Claude, became a stockbroker and, like his father, a freemason, as well as a pillar of his local Conservative party. Estella married a bank clerk, Ida a fellow musician, Cyril a daughter of the Raj and Claude the daughter of a very rich man. Harley, very late in life, married someone prominent in local society.

Ida studied the harp at the Royal Academy of Music and became a much-praised performer. In 1896 she became the first musician of known African origin to play at the Proms. Arthritis ended her career in 1902. Her colour is mentioned in only three reviews of her numerous concerts and Cyril was called a ‘negro’ when his appearance in court, accused of not paying a hotel bill, was reported in a local paper. There is also an in-joke referring to Claude’s racial origins in an article warning potential clients about dubious shares he was offering, but only those who knew him would pick up the reference. Apart from these, there is no mention of their ethnicity in any of the over 300 official documents and numerous newspaper articles that record the family’s lives. When Cyril entered a mental hospital, no link between his illness and his racial background was made.

Their prosperity may have sheltered this mixed race family from prejudice. Certainly the children’s lives suggest that class, rather than colour, remained a strong force in Victorian times, despite the growth of scientific racism. It remains to be seen how many other upper-middle-class people with African origins were living previously unnoticed lives in Victorian Britain.

]]>https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/06/251-a-victorian-middle-class-family-the-audains/feed/0jeffgreenhistorian251 : The Audains: an upper-middle-class family in Victorian Londonhttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/02/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-family-in-victorian-london/
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/02/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-family-in-victorian-london/#respondTue, 02 Jun 2020 13:10:43 +0000http://jeffreygreen.co.uk/?p=5786Contributed by Kathy Chater whose article on Ida Audain will appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She will be publishing a full study of the family. Cyril has left descendants and she is grateful to one of them and to a local historian in the West Indies for their help.

John Audain (c. 1808-1864) was a merchant in St Vincent. He prospered and, after the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, bought the Richmond Hill estate, the largest on the island, which overlooked the island’s capital Kingstown. In 1846 he married his second wife, Hannah Bannatyne (1825-1883), the daughter of a black schoolteacher. Ten years later he became a member of the island’s governing body then in 1860 moved with his wife and three surviving children to London, where they lived in Notting Hill. Two sons were born here before his death in 1864.

His widow and five children had a lifestyle typical of their class. The two daughters, Estella and Ida, were taught music; the eldest son, Harley, who inherited the estate, became a civil servant; the next son, Cyril, tried a number of occupations without success and the youngest, Claude, became a stockbroker and, like his father, a freemason, as well as a pillar of his local Conservative party. Estella married a bank clerk, Ida a fellow musician, Cyril a daughter of the Raj and Claude the daughter of a very rich man. Harley, very late in life, married someone prominent in local society.

Ida studied the harp at the Royal Academy of Music and became a much-praised performer. In 1896 she became the first musician of known African origin to play at the Proms. Arthritis ended her career in 1902. Her colour is mentioned in only three reviews of her numerous concerts and Cyril was called a ‘negro’ when his appearance in court, accused of not paying a hotel bill, was reported in a local paper. There is also an in-joke referring to Claude’s racial origins in an article warning potential clients about dubious shares he was offering, but only those who knew him would pick up the reference. Apart from these, there is no mention of their ethnicity in any of the over 300 official documents and numerous newspaper articles that record the family’s lives. When Cyril entered a mental hospital, no link between his illness and his racial background was made.

Their prosperity may have sheltered this mixed race family from prejudice. Certainly the children’s lives suggest that class, rather than colour, remained a strong force in Victorian times, despite the growth of scientific racism. It remains to be seen how many other upper-middle-class people with African origins were living previously unnoticed lives in Victorian Britain.

]]>https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/06/02/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-family-in-victorian-london/feed/0jeffgreenhistorian251: The Audains – an upper-middle-class London familyhttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/05/31/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-london-family/
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/05/31/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-london-family/#respondSun, 31 May 2020 10:40:23 +0000http://jeffreygreen.co.uk/?p=5779Kathy Chater had contributed an article on Ida Audain to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and will be publishing a full study of the family. Cyril has left descendants and she is grateful to one of them and to a local historian in the West Indies for their help.

John Audain (c. 1808-1864) was a merchant in St Vincent. He prospered and, after the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, bought the Richmond Hill estate, the largest on the island, which overlooked the island’s capital Kingstown. In 1846 he married his second wife, Hannah Bannatyne (1825-1883), the daughter of a black schoolteacher. Ten years later he became a member of the island’s governing body then in 1860 moved with his wife and three surviving children to London, where they lived in Notting Hill. Two sons were born here before his death in 1864.

His widow and five children had a lifestyle typical of their class. The two daughters, Estella and Ida, were taught music; the eldest son, Harley, who inherited the estate, became a civil servant; the next son, Cyril, tried a number of occupations without success and the youngest, Claude, became a stockbroker and, like his father, a freemason, as well as a pillar of his local Conservative party. Estella married a bank clerk, Ida a fellow musician, Cyril a daughter of the Raj and Claude the daughter of a very rich man. Harley, very late in life, married someone prominent in local society.

Ida studied the harp at the Royal Academy of Music and became a much-praised performer. In 1896 she became the first musician of known African origin to play at the Proms. Arthritis ended her career in 1902. Her colour is mentioned in only three reviews of her numerous concerts and Cyril was called a ‘negro’ when his appearance in court, accused of not paying a hotel bill, was reported in a local paper. There is also an in-joke referring to Claude’s racial origins in an article warning potential clients about dubious shares he was offering, but only those who knew him would pick up the reference. Apart from these, there is no mention of their ethnicity in any of the over 300 official documents and numerous newspaper articles that record the family’s lives. Even when Cyril entered a mental hospital, no link between his illness and his racial background was made.

Their prosperity may have sheltered this mixed race family from prejudice. Certainly the children’s lives suggest that class, rather than colour, remained a strong force in Victorian times, despite the growth of scientific racism. It remains to be seen how many other upper-middle-class people with African origins were living previously unnoticed lives in Victorian Britain.

]]>https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/05/31/251-the-audains-an-upper-middle-class-london-family/feed/0jeffgreenhistorian252 : Participating in English Social Life in Victorian Timeshttps://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/03/24/248-participating-in-english-social-life-in-victorian-times/
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/03/24/248-participating-in-english-social-life-in-victorian-times/#respondTue, 24 Mar 2020 14:22:39 +0000http://www.jeffreygreen.co.uk/?p=3665There are easy-to-overlook buildings in English cities which were the centres for improvement societies and groups involved in the well-being of the general public. Churches and chapels often provided meeting places for black speakers, notably the fugitive slaves from the United States, from the 1830s. Some organizations had views which conflicted with church groups, and as the 19th century aged there seems to have been an explosion in fraternal organizations – philanthropic groups that aided those who were worse off. Several claimed to be secular; others had charismatic leaders who attracted audiences of many hundreds. Few today know much about the evangelist Gipsy Smith (1860-1947) or groups such as the Ancient Order of Froth-Blowers which aided children by providing holidays and hospital accommodation. The Orange Order of Northern Ireland and the Salvation Army are quite well known, as are the Masons (aka Freemasons).

There were hundreds of groups which attacked the brewery and distilling trades, split into those who wanted a reduction in the consumption of alcohol and others who favoured total abstinence. Others organized children – the Band of Hope – or local groups. Documenting these activities is difficult, but black participation has been noticed. Visual proof of African American Isaac Dickerson in ‘missionary work’ in eastern London’s Leyton is due to the chance survival of a handbill from March 1897 [it is in Jeffrey Green, Black Americans in Victorian Britain (2018)]. Frederick Oxley of Liverpool was paid commission on his collections for a gospel mission in Birkenhead, which we know through reports in the press in 1906 [see page 191 of this website]. Henry Sylvester Williams, a law student in London in the 1890s, says he worked for the Church of England Temperance Society, and he also lectured for the National Thrift Society [Marika Sherwood, Origins of Pan-Africanism (Routledge, 2011), p 34].

William Wells Brown, an escaped slave who spent some years in Britain around 1850, wrote about Joseph Jenkins, a multi-faceted black who gave anti-alcohol lectures in London; when Brown returned to Britain in 1877 he lectured for the International Order of Good Templars, an American group which would not permit blacks to be members and so they associated with the British group founded in 1868. Older friendly societies, which often merged and changed their names and also often had ‘International’ or ‘Independent’ in their titles included the Foresters founded in 1834, the Odd Fellows of the 1730s, the Rechabites of 1835, and the Masons. Their halls provided quiet meeting places, and the most active groups established insurance and savings schemes. The Hearts of Oak Benefit Society founded in 1842 was taken over by an insurance company in 2007; the Foresters Friendly Society continues, providing insurance and pensions.

Other organizations provided social assistance, and this website has noted black participation in orphan homes run by Dr Barnardo and the Church of England [page 227]. Old photographs enabled these identifications. There was the work of Jamaica-born Agnes Foster whose daughter was a Salvation Army officer in Edwardian Manchester [page 156]. Other black Salvationists are noted in Green, Black Americans in Victorian Britain pp 115-116.

Black participation in English social life in the 19th century remains an under-researched subject, probably due to the size and distribution of the black presence is unknown to many, and involvement in groups such as the Labour party, trade unions, the Chartists has dominated. There were black people active in all manner of activities in Britain, with Lady Mary Grey from 1892 being perhaps the most unexpected [see page 164]. It seems likely that a close study of Victorian philanthropic groups, especially temperance societies, will reveal this black presence. After all, the Orange Lodge in Ghana was founded by Africans in 1918.

]]>https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2020/03/24/248-participating-in-english-social-life-in-victorian-times/feed/0bracketsfox215 : Miss M. B. Servano, Yoruba interpreter, London 1859https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2019/11/14/215-miss-m-b-servano-yoruba-interpreter-london-1859/
https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2019/11/14/215-miss-m-b-servano-yoruba-interpreter-london-1859/#respondThu, 14 Nov 2019 13:37:40 +0000http://www.jeffreygreen.co.uk/?p=3518At the Old Bailey on 4 July 1859 John Bardoe was charged with stabbing, cutting and wounding a police officer with intent to murder him or cause him grievous harm. He was known as John Black but appears to have been Aude Ojun, an Egba. He feared being kidnapped [Daily News (London), 30 June 1859].
It was a London docklands case with an Italian captain and an Italian witness who said the captain had told her about a black man and he was brought to her house (he spoke Genoese-Italian but no English). When he became ill she sought to get him to a hospital. When the police came he locked himself in his room then escaped to the roof. Bardoe was alleged to be a slave. A policeman had twelve cuts from a knife – a doctor testified that three were very serious. Bardoe testified through an interpreter that he had been sold in Lagos, had met two countrymen in London and believed he would have a job with wages but received only food. The knife was for self-defence. Bardoe was found not guilty. His interpreter was ‘Miss M. B. Servano, a native of Yorubah [sic], and educated in England’ [oldbaileyonline.org ref t18590].
The identity of this African woman in London in 1859 might be traced in school/college files, perhaps in the 1861 British census. How was she known to court officials or the police?
]]>https://jeffreygreen.co.uk/2019/11/14/215-miss-m-b-servano-yoruba-interpreter-london-1859/feed/0bracketsfox